Ezra 1 Study Notes

1:1 The first year of King Cyrus refers to the first year of his rule over Babylonia (538 BC) and not the first year of his reign in Persia that began in 559 BC and continued until 530 BC. Spoken through Jeremiah may allude to Jeremiah’s prophecy of the seventy years of captivity (Jr 29:10-14). More likely it is a reference to Jr 51:11, “The Lord has roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes.” The same vocabulary occurs here in Ezr 1:1 where the Lord roused the spirit (cp. Jr 51:1) of King Cyrus.

1:2-3 The “proclamation” (v. 1), often referred to as the “Decree of Cyrus,” reflects Cyrus’s policy to allow the exiles to return to their homeland. The decree, from the closing words of 2 Chronicles (36:23), appears in two versions in the book of Ezra: here in Hebrew, reflecting a strong Jewish perspective, and in 6:3-5 written in Aramaic (the language of diplomacy in the Persian Empire), which appears to be an official court memorandum. Some scholars question whether a Persian king would refer to God as The Lord, the God of the heavens. Possibly this reflects a paraphrase provided by the Jewish leaders in Babylon. One of Cyrus’s tasks was to build a house at Jerusalem in Judah. “House” (Hb beth) often refers to the house of the Lord. The Babylonians had destroyed the temple in 586 BC.

1:4 It is not clear whether the men of that region refers to Jewish men or the entire population. If it refers to all the people, there may be a parallel here to the “spoiling of the Egyptians” (see Ex 3; 11-12). As the birth of the nation began with the spoils of the Gentiles, so the new beginning of God’s people began with the silver and gold of their former oppressors.

1:5 The kingdom of Judah, conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BC, consisted primarily of the region of Judah and Benjamin; thus, the exiles who returned represented three tribal groups: Judah, Benjamin, and Levi (the priests and Levites).

1:6 This verse suggests that the return from exile was a new exodus (see Ex 12:36; Ps 105:37; Is 43:14-16).

1:7 The articles . . . that Nebuchadnezzar had taken when the Babylonians sacked the temple were not only extremely valuable but were of priceless spiritual worth to the returning exiles. Though plundered from the temple that Solomon built, they would again be used in worship in the second temple and would be an additional link to the worshiping community that existed before the great catastrophe of 586 BC.

1:8 Both the name and title of Mithredath are Persian. This is the first mention of the enigmatic Sheshbazzar (vv. 8,11; 5:14,16). His name is Babylonian (“May Shamash [the sun god] protect the father”). His title, prince of Judah, occurs nowhere else in the OT.

1:9-10 The variation in English translations of this passage reflects the difficulty in determining the exact identity of the items mentioned. Particularly uncertain is the reference to 29 silver knives (Hb machalaphim). This rare term may instead refer to duplicate bowls (LXX) or possibly another type of bowl.

1:11 The figure of 5,400 is more than twice the total of the figures given in vv. 9-10. Possibly the items mentioned in the inventory (vv. 9-10) were only a portion of the material returned to Sheshbazzar. A textual corruption, more commonly occurring in lists of numbers, may also account for the disparity. The term exiles (Hb golah) can refer to either the exile to Babylon or the people of the exile. All but one of the twelve occurrences of the term in Ezra (6:21) refer to the people of the exile.